At the outset of the epidemic, everyone was afraid as we faced a yet unknown virus.

 

But there was one man who stood up.

 

He kept fighting all by himself and built a “security line of love” for the medics. 

 

The Boatman of Life tells the story of an ordinary yet great man Wang Yong.

 

The book shows us how an ordinary person rose to challenges at a critical moment and made himself a hero.

 

It was the Chinese New Year’s Eve. I had finished the reunion dinner and was lying on the couch browsing my WeChat Moments when a message caught my eye.

 

The message said medics who wanted free rides could join the group.

 

Car-owners in this area who were willing to give the medics free rides,could join as well. 

 

After I joined the group, I saw the medics’ messages popping up one after another, asking for help.

 

It went on until midnight.

 

I realized then they needed help.

 

I thought I could drive them to their night shift, providing easier commute and saving them some time.

 

What I was thinking was, I could help save two hours of commute time for each medic.

 

If I drove 30 medics to work a day, I could save them a good 60 hours altogether. 

 

At that time, the situation was dire for the medics of the Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital, and 60 hours was valuable time.

 

I believed it was something well worth doing. 

 

Everyone had worries and fears, whether they stayed at home or worked outdoors as volunteers like us.

 

It would be insincere to say that you are not afraid. 

 

But honestly, if by going outdoors for one day, I could give the medics a good 60 hours, then the rewards well outweighed the risks.

 

When you put things in perspective, you do not dwell on the risks.

 

When I went to get the very first medic, I got myself psyched up and thought I was not afraid.

 

But when the medic got into my car, I felt shaky by instinct. 

 

Speaking of forming a team, I thought I would step up a gear and do it by myself.

 

But then I found out I could not do it alone with the medics’ demands increasing all the time. 

 

Then I thought of calling for help to have more people pitch in and share the load.

 

So, I created this team of about 20 to 30 people that could do over 500 trips per day for the Jinyintan Hospital.

 

This was our very first team.

 

We came together because we all had the heart to do this. 

 

My part was more of an initiator that called upon everyone to do whatever we were capable of for the Jinyintan Hospital.

 

As a growing number of medics were coming to Wuhan’s rescue, we realized we could not resolve the commute problem even if we were to double our forces. 

 

So, we hoped to pool more resources.

 

We got the word out that we were looking for contact information of any manager of Meituan and that we were trying to get in touch with Mobike to ask them to provide services for the Jinyintan Hospital.

 

Luckily, they answered our request because they had developed free ride services for medics but they did not know how to go about it.

 

We had all the commute data they needed.

 

The following day, they had the bikes in place.

 

We obtained public scooters, and that helped meet the demands within 10 kilometers. 

 

We went to ride-sharing companies to help those who needed to travel more than 10 kilometers.

 

The communication part was tough.

 

For each affirmative I got, I got 20 times rejections. 

 

When you went to a ride-sharing company or a scooter-sharing company all by yourself, they would ignore you, being a company that big.

 

It was common to be rejected. 

 

I got rejected by one department and another, again and again.

 

But as I was in personal contact with medics, I learned to persevere, just like them.

 

For an ordinary person, being rejected was extremely frustrating.

 

While medics always rush to the forefront to save lives, we feel powerless.

 

Medics are ordinary people like us.

 

They felt all the anxiety that we felt.

 

They were far more stressed than us, weren’t they?

 

What could they do when the situation was not in their favor? 

 

For example, when Wuhan was put under lockdown and public transportation was suspended so they could not go to work.

 

What they did was to get up three to four hours earlier to go to work on foot.

 

Their sense of responsibility and perseverance was admirable to us and all the volunteers around them.

 

So, we tried to do as much as we could.

 

When it came to getting big companies involved, we saw that we, as a team, were not strong enough to tackle the problems we had discovered.

 

Everywhere medics faced the same problems.

 

Our team could only tackle some of them.

 

What we hoped was that we could help solve problems on a larger scale and that called for the big names that were capable of providing help to more medics.

 

What we could do as individual volunteers was to let our voices be heard and let the big names know what exactly medics need to help solve the problems.

 

They were capable of doing this. 

 

We needed to make it clear, establish a link and stick to it. 

 

On April 28, 2020 I received the 24th China Youth May Fourth Medal.

 

On August 26, I got the title of “The Most Beautiful Volunteer” for fighting the epidemic.

 

In September I won the National Award for Role Models for Fighting COVID-19.

 

On September 17, I was awarded by the Central Commission for Guiding Cultural and Ethical Progress for helping others out. 

 

When I was doing all those things, I had just wanted to give it my best shot.

 

With all the honors, comes more responsibility.

 

I hope I can improve myself as a volunteer.

 

Working as a volunteer, I have gained much, Especially honor and recognition from other people.

 

What I have right now is a project called the Lotus Student Aid, which was launched by the SF Foundation.

 

We sponsored over 4,300 students in Hubei Province alone. 

 

In the future, I am going to focus more on education and children.

 

I hope I will help more people as I continue my work with public welfare projects.